3 Levels to Developing a Competitive Marketing Strategy

Most organizations have a formal process tied to their annual strategic planning, and many business leaders are aware that the strategic planning process is different at each level of the corporation. Because each level tackles a different strategic question, the tools for addressing them often differ as well.

However, the key to developing a competitive marketing strategy lies within the ability of the company to use the “right tools” to address the “right question” at each strategic level.

3 Levels of Strategic Planning

When looking at developing and implementing actionable strategies from an organizational perspective, three levels emerge wherein the purpose of strategic planning differs.

Corporate Level

From a corporate planning perspective, an enterprise aims to answer the question “How do we grow?” Businesses can choose to grow through market penetration, market development, product development, or diversification. However, choosing the right route requires a detailed assessment of the current product portfolio as well as current and adjacent markets with their specific needs.

Business Units

As products or markets are added to the growth strategy, they’re grouped into strategic business units. The question that then emerges to business unit managers is “Where should we focus our limited resources?” To address this, personnel must evaluate the current market segments being served and/or the segments they wish to serve. This requires an analysis of the attractiveness and current competitiveness in each market segment based upon a specific criterion.

Product/Market

After completing evaluation across markets an organization currently serves or wishes to serve, it needs to conduct a very detailed analysis of strategic priorities across the range of products/services they offer. This will help determine where to focus future investments, such as Voice of the Market (VOM), to achieve a greater ROI. Once a strategic focus on specific product/service markets has been identified, the question changes to “How does the business compete within this strategic priority?”

Over 20 years of research at Market Value Solutions has shown that the most effective competitive marketing strategies are those based upon delivering superior value to the customer. This raises a whole new set of questions focused on identifying a company’s current value proposition and figuring out where a business ultimately wants to go. Value metrics are the key here, and MVS data analysis is able to help recognize competitive strengths to leverage in the marketplace.

MVS is poised to help take your strategic process to the next level by making it more market-focused, value-driven, and actionable. For more information on developing and implementing a competitive marketing strategy, contact us today.